Improvement in raising- and moving coal



waited ,guette @anni diiiiir.

Letters Patent No. 96,927 ,dated November 16, 1869.

The Shednle referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

ALFRED LAWTON, of Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia-,State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements on Moving and Raising Goal Y and other granular material, of which the following is a specification.

Nature mul'Object of' the Invention'.

My invention consists in certain improvements, fully described hereafter, in the method of moving and raising coal and other granular material, for which Letters Patent were-granted to me on the 13th dayof July,

1869, the improvements being such that although the coal or other material will of itself pass into the car cr other vessel in which it is to be raised, as in my pat ented invention, yet it is not necessary, as in the latter, that the mass of coal, 85e., shouldsurround or be in close proximity to the clevatingshaft, or its equiva lent.; in fact the main object of my present invention' is to avoid the necessity of surrounding the shaft and to enable masses of granular lnaterial to be conveyed from points more vor less remote to the said shaft, or its equivalent, and to be raised in the latter, without any ofthe usu'al tedious ai'i'dcostly labor which would be demanded in'removing the same material by means of shovels and wheelbarrows. f

.Description of the Accompanying Dra'wiug.

Figure 1- is a vertical section of apparatus, which may b e used in carl-ying out my invention;

Figure 2, a plan view of the same;

Figure 3, a-vertical section on the line 1 2, fig. l;

Figure 4, a sectional plan on the line 3-4, tig. 1; and

Figure 5, a perspective view of the upper portion of the elevating-shaft.

General Description. A represents a platform, which ma'y be either wholly or in part of open trestle work, audon a level with orv at such convenient height above the surface'of the ground as' will enable cars to be conducted ou -to or from the said platform upon tracks a.

Beneath thisy platform or trestle work is `a secondl platform, B, upon which is deposited the coal or other matelial to be moved and raised, as hereafter ex 'passage to a'll parts of the said chamber/f a small car or other conveying vessel F, the wheels of which run upon tracks b' b b, laid upon the bottom D of the chamber, said tracks merging into a single track, b', at4 a point beneath a shaft or elevator, H.

A number of openings, t, are formed in the platform B, at points direct-ly above the tracks l), and each of these openings is,iu the present insta-nce, furnished on the under side of the platform with a sliding door, j; but it should be understood that these doors may be level withor on the top of the platform, and that they may be hinged or arranged in any manlief which will best answer the purpose.

It is essential, however, that the openings or traps 'i should be somewhat less in size than the top of the car or conveyer F.

The shaft or elevator H, before referred to, is built and may be continuous and entirely enclosed, as shown in iig. l; or it maybe constructed in two sections, the lowermost extending between the platforms A and B, and being entirely closed, while the uppermost section may be nothing more than a light open frame-work, which can, if desired, be mounted upon wheels, arranged to run upon a track, k, as seen in figs. 2 and 5, this'latter arrangement, when the apparatus is constructed upon so extended a scale as tu reqnirea number of shafts, effecting considerable economy, as the lower section only need be permanent, while the upper movable section can be shifted from point to point, and fitted over any of the lower sections, as it is required for use.

Itis intended that the shaft or elevatingtube shall be furnished with hoisting-tackle, operated by any suitable gearing, under the control of an attendant, and that this tackle shall be employed to raise or lower the car or conveyor F, which is arranged to slide in the shaft.

Although I prefer that the bottom of the shaft should not. be sunk below the platform of deposit B, as described in my aforesaid patented invention, for the reason thatthe chamber C takes the lplace ofthe sunken portion of the shaft, and is in fact nothing more than au extension of the same, yet the shaft or a'portiou of it may, it' desired, be extended below the platform without departing from my invention, but this will only be rendered necessary when the shaft; takes the'form of an inclined plane, having a track upon its lower side to receive the wheels ofthe car F. v It should be understood, before proceeding further, that the conveyer F may consist ot a car, such as shown in the drawing, or of a bucket adapted to the interior of the shaft, and arranged `to be conveyed about the chamber upona wheeled truck, or of any other convenient form and construction that circuml stances may suggest.

`It should also be understood that in some cases the platform A can be dispensed with, and the tracks laid directly upon the platform B, but I prefer in most cases that the several platforms should be arranged as shown in the drawing.

In using the above-described apparatus, the mass of coal orl other granular material to be removed and ele 'ated is first deposited upon the platfbrm B by cars running upon the tracks a of the .upper platform A. The ".n' or conveyerl F is then moved upon one of the tracks b to a point beneath one of the openings t, the door j of which is so moved as to uncover the whole or a portion of the said opening, when coalfrom the mass upon the platform will of itself rush down into the car until the latter is filled, the door j being then closed. l

The loaded car is next run upon thetrack b to a point directly beneath the lower open end of the shaft, and is raised to the top of the latter by means of the aforementioned gearing under the control of an attendant, the car after reaching the top of the sh'aft being tilted, or its contents otherwise disposed of.

The car being lowered is again run upon one of the tracks b to a point beneath any one of the openings t', whether adjacent to or remote from the shaft, and is filled as before, and so on until the desired quantity of coal or other material has been moved and raised.

1t will be observed from the above that thc main feature of my patented invention, namely, so arrangilrcr the shaft, or rather the hoisting-vessel, in respect to the mass-of coal' or other material to be raised, that the latter will of itself pass into the said vessel, is adhered to in the present instance.

1n my former invention, however, it was necessary to sink the shaft 4below the surface of the ground or platform, in order to permit the hoisting-vessel to he lowered to a sufficient extent, and also to wholly or in part surround the shaft with the material to be eleva-- ted, this necessarily confini-ng the operation of the apparatus to a ,comparatively limited space.

Iln my present invention, however', which is merely an extension ofthe same principle, it is not necessary that the mass should surround the shaft, or even that it should be in close proxir'nity to the same, the onlyl requirement being the providing of snticient space beneath the shaft and beneath the material to be elevated, as to permit the passage of the hoisting-vessel or car, as bet'ore. described.

The importance of my invention will be understood if we suppose it to be erected at--any place where large masses of coal are deposited to heremoved from time to time, as, for instance, at the coal-wharves or depot of a railroad orcanal.

In consequence of the tedious and costly labor demanded in piling up and removing these masses of coalby the aid ofvshovels and wheelbarrows alone, it has been customary, in order to economiz'e this labor, to deposit the masses as close as possible to the point of shipment, so that the wharves and depot-s, in order to sustain the great weight to which they are snbj ected,

must necessarily be massive and expensive structures;

and it oftentimes -happens that valuable space at the ends of the wharves is entirely occupied by the masses of coal awaiting shipment, and which cannot economically be placed elsewhere.

All of these difficulties are at once overcome by the use of my invention, furthe coal which is not to be shipped immediately can be deposited from the cars as it arrives directly upon a platformz placed at any couvenient point atthe rear of the wharves orldepot, from which platform it can be raised in the manner before described, in the-quantities, andv at the times required. The wharves, also, not having to sustain the heavy masses of coal, can be light and-inexpensive structures, of sufficient vstrength only to sustain the weight of the tracks, and of the cars in which the coal is carried-to the points of shipment.

Claims.

l. The moving and raising of coal or other granular material by means ot' a car or suitable. vessel, arranged to move in a chamber which extends beneath the platform upon which is deposited the coal or other material to be raised, and beneath a shaft, or its equivalent, so that the said material will of itself pass into the vessel, and so that the latter when filled may he raised in the said shaft, or its equivalent, all substantially as herein set forth. l

2. In combination.with the said chamber extending beneath the platform of deposit, the openings t' in the latter, each furnished with a' suitable door, j. y

3. rlhe arrangement, at the bottom of the chamber 0,of vthe tracks b and b', or any equivalent arrangement of tracks', whereby the car or conveyer F can be conducted from the elevating-shaft to any ofthe openings t' in the plattin'm of deposit, or fucr' cursa.

4. An elevating-slnlft, consisting of alower permanent portion, and of an u pper movable portion, substantially asA described, and as represented in figs. 2 and 5 of the drawing.

5. The arrangement, substantially as herein described, in respect to the chamber C and elevatingshaft, of the plattbrms Aand B.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my namento this speciticatiou, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALFRED LANVTON.

Witnesses:

JOHN WHITE, HARRY SMITH. 

